The present invention is directed to index sheets that are directly printable by machines such as laser or ink jet printers. More specifically, it relates to constructions of index divider sheet assemblies, processes of manufacturing them and methods of using them.
A popular index divider product that is printable by laser printers is the "DIRECT PRINT Custom Dividers for Laser Printers" product, which has been available from Avery Dennison Corporation of Pasadena, Calif. since 1998. It has an index tab extending out from a tab edge thereof and an opposite binding edge flap, which is calendered and folded over onto the adjacent calendered portion of the body sheet and held down with a releasable adhesive. By folding the flap over and tacking it down, the effective width of the product is reduced so that it can be fed into today's printers or copiers.
An adhesive peel-off strip is adhered to the backside of the sheet along the tab edge and behind the tab of the DIRECT PRINT product. Thereby, the strip defines a straight edge perimeter for the product, improving feeding of the product into and/or passing of the product through a printer or copier. The strip is then peeled off of the sheet after the printing operation and disposed of. This product is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,566 ('566) (Hunter et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,792,297 ('297) (Hunter et al.). See also, U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,454 (Owen) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,836,710 (Owen). (These four patents and all other patents and other publications and applications mentioned anywhere in this disclosure are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties.) Additionally, see PCT Publications WO 98/07582 and 98/41406, both by ACCO USA, Inc.; another user printable tab sheet construction is disclosed in PCT publication WO 99/22359; and other index sheets are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,924,744 (Heimann), U.S. Pat. No. 4,560,600 (Yellin et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,962,603 (Kao et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,135,261 (Cusack et al.) and WO 97/32736 (ACCO USA, Inc.).
The DIRECT PRINT product can thereby be fed in a portrait direction into laser printers, and the peel-off strip creates a rectangular sheet article which provides a continuous edge to run through the printer. When it is fed into tabloid-size laser or ink jet printers that are designed to print eleven inch by seventeen inch sheets in a landscape orientation, it is fed binding edge first. This insures proper feeding because if it were fed peel-off strip edge first, the tab edge may catch in the printer.
For some of the tabloid-size laser printers when the product is fed in the landscape direction and peel-off strip last, the peel-off strip helps the printer correctly sense the edge of the sheet. That is, without the strip the edge of the sheet would be sensed about one half inch early, and once the sensor is triggered the printer does not print, and thus will not print on the tab. Examples of these printers are the HP 4V, 5SI and the Mopier printers from HP.
The peel-off strip of the DIRECT PRINT product passes behind the entire back face of the tab. Thus, with the strip on for improved feeding and printing, indicia cannot be printed by the printer or copier on the back face of the tab, only on the front face of the tab. However, sometimes it is desirable to print indicia (particularly the same indicia) on both faces of the tab.
One way to print on both faces is to use the variation on the DIRECT PRINT product shown in FIG. 15 of the '566 patent. That embodiment includes in addition to the folded-over binding edge, two short peel-off strips, releasably attached to the back of the index sheet at opposite ends of the tab, and spaced apart with the tab in between them. Thereby the back of the tab is not covered by either peel-off strip and is exposed for a printing operation thereon. The sheet is then passed twice through the printer or copier, one time to print indicia on the front of the tab and the other time to print on the back. In other words, the sheets would be printed, recollated to put them in the correct printing order, printed again, the peel-off strip removed and the binding edge unfolded.
A very recently commercialized version of the DIRECT PRINT product is called "DIRECT PRINT Custom Dividers For Ink Jet Printers" and is especially adapted for ink jet printers. The feed trays of these printers have corner separation tabs or clips. To prevent the folded-over flaps of these new products from catching on these tabs, both ends of the flaps have cut-out corners. These new products, and variations thereon and manufacturing methods therefor are disclosed in copending application Ser. Nos. 09/310,499 and 09/310,503, both filed on May 12, 1999.